Trimble calls for end to Drumcree violence

Northern Ireland's first minister David Trimble today condemned the loyalist violence which has erupted around Drumcree in the last two nights, but criticised the parades commission for rewarding local residents' "intransigence" in opposing the Orangemen's parade.

After a meeting with the parades commission - which yesterday banned Portadown Orangemen from marching down the Nationalist Garvaghy Road next Sunday - the Ulster Unionist leader said violence would not advance any cause. Mr Trimble said: "Whatever decisions I've taken, there is no place for violence and riot and the incidents that we have seen over the last few days."

However, Mr Trimble, who is MP for the Portadown area, said he was "very disappointed" that the parades commission did not act on a proposal from Portadown unionist councillors which he said would have helped resolve the Drumcree crisis in a fair way.

The councillors had proposed that a parade go ahead on Garvaghy Road, but that it be followed on Monday by a civic forum involving both Orangemen and Garvaghy residents to negotiate a long-term resolution.

Mr Trimble said he understood the commission's intention in holding out a "vague offer" of a future parade. But he said their ruling had been too ambiguous.

"The commission had made the mistake of rewarding intransigence by saying they cannot envisage circumstances in which there will be a walk without local accommodation." That had been a critical mistake and as a result a great opportunity had been lost.

Mr Trimble also criticised Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party for trying to exacerbate the situation by holding a debate in the assembly today calling for the expulsion of Sinn Fein. "I am afraid we are seeing here again irresponsible action from the DUP," he said.

He said no amount of violence would force a change in the decision to ban Sunday's parade.

Mr Mandelson said: "It is not what the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland want. It is not what the vast majority of members of the Orange Order want and they like me will support the police in whatever action they need to take to deal with this thuggery."

A Portadown parade banned from the Garvaghy Road several years ago was eventually forced through after days of loyalist violence across the province. But Mr Mandelson warned: "Nobody by force of arm, use of violence, by bullying and intimidation is going to get any change of any decision, any law, any conclusion, that I, the parades commission or anyone else will have reached."

Meanwhile Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams appealed to unionist political and community leaders to put pressure on the Orangemen to end the Drumcree protest. He also said nationalists throughout Northern Ireland should remain calm but vigilant over the coming days.

Speaking at Stormont ahead of the DUP-inspired debate to exclude Sinn Fein from the power-sharing executive, Mr Adams said: "I think people have to remain vigilant.

"They have to remain calm. I would say to them even though they are under siege and under curfew, to try and see the big picture.

"There are big changes coming. But the bigots and rejectionists cannot stop the changes."